Top Tips for planning your family holiday

Set your next family holiday up to be an enjoyable and less stressful time by taking a few steps to ensure everything works in your favour. Holidaying inevitably will involve some tedium and hassle, but the better prepared you are, the more likely you’ll be able to avoid this as much as possible.

As a parent, you want to share new experiences with your children and make happy memories for them, but travelling can be stressful at the best of times, and often bringing your kids along for the ride only makes things worse.

Here's how to reduce the stress that often comes with holidaying as a family by Debbie Stevens from The Cruise Line

Recruit Their Help

Kids are far more likely to enjoy themselves if they feel involved with the trip as a whole. So when it comes to planning your holiday, make sure to get them involved, look over brochures with them and get some ideas about what they might like to see and do while there.

Adult-focused holidays with kids in tow are a recipe for disaster - if you want to look at local churches, don’t expect your children to find them as fascinating as you do, or to hide their feelings.

Allow Flexibility

While you may want to organise the entire trip from beginning to end in terms of what you’ll be getting up to, it is worth allowing some flexibility, as with small children, things can come up quite unexpectedly.

So where possible, avoid booking and paying for excursions that you could end up losing your money to, and don’t be too solid in any of your plans, so as to avoid disappointment if you have to change plans at last minute.

On-the-Go Entertainment

As you will know, but your children may not appreciate, travelling often involves a lot of boring stretches, from sitting for hours on trains or planes, to the tedium of airport checkins. To prevent too much whining, make sure to bring along means of entertainment - and mix it up, otherwise they’ll be telling you they’re bored within ten minutes.

Go Child-Friendly

From your hotel to the day trips you go on, it is wise to stick to attractions that make themselves known as ‘child-friendly’. Not only does it give you the peace of mind that your requirements, like baby changing facilities or childminding services, will be available, but will prevent vitriol from other childless travellers who don’t feel so enthusiastic about spending their precious holiday time around youngsters.

For more information on The Cruise Line please visit The CruiseLine

The Cruise Line have a depth of knowledge in the travel industry with a combined total of 250 years travel experience and being a trusted agent since 1993. They are an award-winning, independent agency with a dedicated team of experts.

About the Author: Debbie Stevens oversees the Sales’ Team and assists with coordinating The Cruise Line’s marketing strategy. She has had over 20 years travel experience with various responsibilities and sailed with the Windstar, Regent Seven Seas, Silversea and Hapag-Lloyd amongst others.